The Truth: Part I

Going to keep this short.In mid-2017, I was broke and essentially homeless.I had $20k in my bank account and was approximately $70k in debt.

Realizing Daisy Jane needed to be cared for in the event I was unable, I visited Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue (www.dvgrr.org) with Daisy to make plans to give her away.They wouldn’t take her.The staff saw how much she was attached to me when I left her to tour the facility.When I returned, they said, “Daisy is clearly your dog.Things are not destitute, yet.If they get to that point, we are here for you to give Daisy up for adoption.”

Over four years of marital and divorce strife had taken its toll.I almost gave up.Don’t know how close I actually came to giving up, but it was the lowest I have ever felt and would not wish those feelings upon my worst enemy.There are many people, some Facebook friends and some not and some random acquaintances, that for whatever part they played during those days, months and years had a hand in me being where I am today.Alive, plain and simple.

My family all abandoned me.They were happy to see me down and out (or so they thought).They would rather keep me down than help build me up.One by one, brother, mother and father turned on me.(Note:My sister doesn’t count.We haven’t really had a relationship since my sophomore year in college.)Not only did my family members each teach me what love is not, they each let me see themselves for who they really are.The only thing we have in common is blood.Nothing more.

I told Daisy during a walk in June or July 2017 when almost all hope had been lost that “if the roles were reversed, I would have left you (Daisy) three years ago.”

More than any human’s influence, I am here where I am today because of one person over any other: Daisy.Without her in my life during those “Weakest Moments” (or “Weakass Moments” as she likes to call them), none of this would be possible.I simply would not have made it.

So, this new chapter is really a new beginning.Everything nasty from my marriage and “high conflict divorce,” as Kim’s lawyer was quick to call it, with Kim as well as my relationships with Matt (and his wife Kristin), and my parents, Paul and Della, are in the rearview mirror.Going forward, it’s life through the windshield, it’s life onward and upward.There is no looking back in the rear view mirror or living in the past.None of them were there for me when I needed them most.

In addition to Daisy, I owe a ton of gratitude to Jon, Bob, Calvary Church of Souderton, PA, and countless other people.

As Jerry Garcia says in “Truckin’,” what a long, strange trip it’s been.

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“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”